Miss Manners on…how to address patent examiners?

You can’t make this stuff up: http://www.courant.com/hc-manners0627.artjun27,0,1086352.story

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Bilking inventors out of their money

Interesting article on TimesUnion.com about invention promotion companies: Patent Schemes Fleece Inventors.

“They keep fleecing you until you’re out of money.”

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Sole practitioner attorneys, small businesses and domain names

I don’t know how often I see a small business or sole attorney with a @aol.com or @localISPname.com email address as thier business address.  Most of them don’t realize how others look at it as being a large indicator of web-un-savvyness.  Don’t believe me?  See also: “LLRX: A Continuing Discussion of Law Firm Marketing on the Internet.”

My advice…kick up your web-savvyness a notch by registering your business name and/or personal name as a domain name and setting up at least a basic web page.  Then, you could create an email address of you@yourname.com. 

Setting up a domain name is very easy…easier than you probably think.  Most web hosts have software with built in templates that allow you to quickly create web pages on the fly. 

Want to try it for free?  Microsoft Office Live is beta testing their new web site creation software.  If you sign up for an account, they’ll give you a free domain name registration, free email accounts and AND free hosting.  Now you have no excuses….

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ABA Ethics vs. USPTO Ethics

Ever wonder what the difference is between the ABA Model Rules (which most states have adopted/adopted variants of) and the USPTO Ethics rules? Wonder no more…patent attorney Timir Chheda recently had an article published in The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law:

A HANDY LIST: COMPARISON OF THE ABA MODEL RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT WITH THE PATENT RULES OF ETHICS [pdf]

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Sudoku 101

OK…so it isn’t Friday (ergo the TGIF post).  Its been a long time since I’ve done one…

My wife has been addicted to Sudoku for quite some time now.  When I found out that a friend of mine was working on a new Sukoku game called Zen of Sudoku, I suggested she try it.  She (as an Sudoku master) loves it. 

She finally convinced me to try it out (I’m not the puzzle type)…and I have to say that I’m really impressed.  I don’t have the patience to solve the printed Sudoku puzzles…but the way Zen of Sudoku is laid out, it makes it really easy to do them on your computer screen.

If you are a Sudoku master OR even a Sudoku rookie…I highly recommend it.

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[UPDATE] Another patent tool: FireFox Search Bar & patent searching

I previously posted here and here on a cool FireFox plug-ins & Greasemonkey scripts

Then…I found another feature (of one of the plug-ins/scripts) I didn’t mention, namely hot linking within the patent page itself.  Very cool.  Here are a couple screen shots about what I mean:

and

See also:  other The Invent Blog™ posts on “Tech Tips” and “Patent Searching.”

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Patent Reform 101…video and/or audio for you to download for free

The Matt Buchanan (Promote the Progress® Blog) patent reform roadshow first stopped in Idaho (May 5, 2005) and has now travelled on to Oklahoma/Texas where he recently put on a CLE for the IP Section of the Oklahoma Bar.  I’ve heard this presentation…it is well worth your time watching the video via the file links provided at the PHOSITA® blog.

If you did it right you could probably submit it for CLE credit with your state bar…

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Patent Drawings 101 for Inventors

About.com on: Creating Patent Drawings For A Utility Patent

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Recent Posts on Rethink(IP)’s RSSMojo

• Recently Filed Copyright Lawsuits
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•  Changes to Eliminate the Disclosure Document Program (June 2005) (06Jun2006)
•  USPTO To Conduct Briefing on New Web-Based Filing System for Patent Applications
•  Revision of Patent Fees for Fiscal Year 2007 (05June2006)
•  USPTO Program in China Underscores Importance of Protecting Geographical Indications and Trademarks (02JUN2006)
•  Patent
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[Via Rethink(IP)’s RSS Mojo]

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The Invent Blog Improvements

I finally took my own advice about Blogging 101 and have started to rework my own blog, fixing some of the issues I’ve always had and have dreaded dealing with.  The main thing is associating the www.inventblog.com domain name with the blog.

A year and a half ago I tried these things (domain mapping, etc.) and had nothing but trouble.  The main trouble was in getting inventblog.com to work.  TypePad would tell me it was GoDaddy’s issue, GoDaddy would tell me it was TypePad’s issue.  Eventually, rather than have inventblog.com be a 404, I gave up and went back to the nip.blogs.com.  However, I finally found someone else writing on the solution to this problem (btw…it was a GoDaddy issue)…so using my domain was again a possibility.

I know I’ll lose "Google juice" from it.  Also, when I eventually move to WordPress (the features, designs, usability and support is just too good)…I’ll lose all the old links my fellow bloggers gave.  Speaking of fellow bloggers…if you have The Invent Blog in your blogroll, if you could update the url to:  www.inventblog.com…that would be, as my 3 year old says, "totally awesome!"

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